


The Air Was Full of Various Storms

by missmichellebelle



Series: Like the Stars Chase the Sun [1]
Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Childhood Friends, Elf Levi, Elf/Human Relationship(s), Elves, Fantasy, M/M, Magic, Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-07
Updated: 2016-04-07
Packaged: 2018-05-31 19:21:13
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,321
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6484354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/missmichellebelle/pseuds/missmichellebelle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Maybe you didn't say the magic word."</p><p>Magic words. Dwarves don’t <i>use</i> magic words, the way magically inclined humans do, or lyrical language, the way the elves do.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Air Was Full of Various Storms

**Author's Note:**

> so this started with **shulkie** prompting me with the dialogue, "You didn't say the magic word," and it all just kind of spiraled from there.
> 
> *softly sings Start of Something New from HSM*
> 
> (lol no but I've wanted to write elf!Levi/human!Eren since I got into fandom oh dear I'm sorry guys. also yay for making up languages off the cuff that totally won't bite me in the ass ever. >A>; )
> 
> (also hello, it's been awhile, hasn't it? <3)
> 
>  
> 
> **small trigger warning for mentions of blood!**

Eren skims his hand along the rock wall, frowning in concentration as he looks for... For _something_. He curls his fingers and they catch on grooves and divots in the rock, but it doesn’t _lead_  to anything.

“I _know_  it’s here,” he growls in frustration, because he can feel the elf’s eyes burning into the skin of his neck. “One of those Dwarven...” his tongue twists around a word that his human tongue was never meant to say, and he gives up. “Those traveler homes, or—or something.” It’s a horrendous translation, he’s sure, but given his present company, he’s sure they don’t mind.

“Dwarves,” Levi says with a sniff and the same tone that any elf uses in regards to... Well, any race that _isn’t_  elves, really. “Overcomplicating things, as usual.”

Eren decides that now is not the best time to remind Levi of the time he once had to _sing_  to a tree to get to the elven home hidden inside of it. To Eren, both tactics seem pretty unnecessary, but then again, he’s a human and he’s fine with his wooden doors and their single locks.

The clouds they’ve been outrunning since yesterday are crowding steadily closer, darkening the sky into a premature night, and he can feel the storm coming in his skin. Can tell by the look on Levi’s face that he can smell it in the air and taste it on his lips.

“Can you stop degrading every other living thing on this planet and _help_  me?” Eren bangs his open palm against the rock, slicing a shallow cut down the center, and hisses.

“Maybe you didn’t say the magic word,” Levi sneers, and Eren just cradles his now injured hand close to his chest, glaring at the bright shock of blood pooling there rather than at his companion. There’s the gentle kiss of misty rain starting against his skin, and Eren knows that if he doesn’t figure this out soon (without Levi’s help, apparently) they’ll both be left to the fury of the storm.

Magic words. Dwarves don’t _use_ magic words, the way magically inclined humans do, or lyrical language, the way the elves do. Eren tries to think of what he’s learned of the dwarves and their dying culture over his travels, stories about their brute strength and almost barbaric customs that—

Eren grunts, pinching at the cut on his hand to draw more blood, and then smears it in a curving diagonal line down the cliff face.

“What in _Gaia_  are you—” Levi starts, before a rumble interrupts him. For a second, they both look skyward, sure that the clouds have finally split, when a dull blue glow cracks down the rock face and splits it in two, swinging in on itself like a door.

“See!” Eren declares, voice strained from the pain in his hand. “Told you it was here.”

“You can gloat once we’re out of the elements,” Levi bites, even as Eren watches him hesitate at the mouth of the cave. It’s not an easy thing for an elf to go underground, but Levi’s mouth thins into a line and he pushes himself into the stale, earthy air.

Eren stumbles in after him, startling as the rock folds together behind him. For a brief second, him and Levi are left in the dark, and Eren feels heavy at the thought of tearing open another part of his body just to get them _out_. It would be some sort of poetic justice, he supposes. He is the one who led them here, after all, claiming that the elven village Levi had pushed for was too far out of their way, too off course. It makes sense that his blood should be spilled.

Without any words of magic that Eren can discern, fire splutters to life in its holders, illuminating the Dwarven traveler home that Eren has incredibly vague memories of. To his relief, there is a clear door on the inside, with a handle and everything, and it’s enough to make Eren collapse onto a too-small chair seemingly carved from one solid piece of stone.

It’s immensely uncomfortable.

“ _Tch_.” Levi surveys the surroundings, keeping his hands firmly to himself as he steps carefully around the small, round cave. “Filthy.”

“Well, we are underground, so,” Eren murmurs, letting his pack settle on the ground and grunting with the relief of the weight. He knows he has some clean cloth he can rip up for bandages, even if it means sacrificing one of his few shirts. It’s better than the sort of evils that can creep into him through such a simple looking wound.

“ _Lï-ya_ ,” Levi mutters, and Eren starts so hard he slams his back into the solid rock of the chair and lets out a groan of pain. Stupid elves. They move way too quietly. “Idiot,” Levi repeats in the common tongue, and Eren has heard the elvish term enough times that he’s tempted to tell Levi that he doesn’t need to translate anymore. “How did you cut your hand?”

Levi may be small, but it’s a deceiving fragility that makes him all the more deadly. He takes Eren’s hand with such force that, had Eren truly tried to resist, probably would have injured it further.

“Looking for the entrance,” Eren clarifies, feeling a strange twist in his gut as Levi examines the wound. “Good thing, though, or else we never would have gotten in,” he jokes, but Levi doesn’t seem to find it funny.

Then again, Levi doesn’t tend to find many things very funny.

“Absolutely savage, using blood magic,” Levi hisses, and there’s a hostility in his voice that makes Eren’s skin turn cold.

“Well, you know, Dwarves come from—”

“Does it hurt?” Levi butts in, no doubt content not knowing anything more about Dwarven history than he already does.

“It’s shallow,” Eren counters. Because it _does_  hurt, like any wound would. In fact, more, since it’s more skin than anything. But it’s nothing life-threatening ( _yet_ ).

Levi makes a noise in the back of his throat, but says nothing else. The intent way in which he’s staring at Eren’s hand makes him fidget, and just as he moves to take it back (it really does need to be cleaned and bandaged), Levi sandwiches Eren’s palm between both of his.

It shocks Eren into stillness.

There is a sharp, sudden heat, like pricking his skin against the tip of a fire treated needle, and then it’s gone.

And, when Levi releases his hand, so is Eren’s cut.

“You healed it,” Eren surmises, the words rounded with awe because... Well. He’s _in_  awe.

“Don’t get used to it.” Levi’s voice is punctuated by the sudden pulsing sound of distant thunder and, while they are covered and protected by stone and earth, the very distinct sound of cutting, pouring rain. “Be more careful in the future.” There’s a softness to his tone that Eren can easily say he hasn’t heard since... Well, he was a small child. But that was long, long ago. Long before Eren had become the man he is today, and before something had changed Levi from the elf who had led a small boy by the hand through a crowded village to... This Levi.

It’s a mystery that Eren hopes to one day unravel and understand.

The silence that falls then is awkward, Levi still knelt on the stone floor as Eren flexes his now healed hand, and then another roll of thunder breaks the moment into pieces.

“The storm is here,” Eren says unnecessarily, watching as Levi stands in one fluid motion and moves towards the opposite side of the cave, closer to the door and the outside air that he no doubt longs for.

“ _Issh-yun ta_ ,” Levi retorts. Eren’s not quite sure what _that_  means, but if the heavy sarcastic tone is anything to go off of, it’s probably something quite similar to, “no shit.”

**Author's Note:**

> [read, reblog, & like on tumblr](http://missmichellebelle.tumblr.com/post/142392309815/you-didnt-say-the-magic-word-ereri)


End file.
